Meet a Lower Manhattan Business: SamSara Café

06/27/2012 in

SamSara Café strives to bring the outdoors inside, borrowing on its founders’ love of horticulture and eclectic food. “The menu changes seasonally as does the plant wall. The two go hand-in-hand,” said Chef Joshua Elliott, formerly of The Stanton Social.

So hardy bromeliads will change to brightly colored flowers come spring, and white poinsettias dominate the wall in the winter.

As for the food, ingredients for sauces and sides are switched depending on what’s available locally, but the menu doesn’t drop its popular dishes like the duck confit quesadillas and pulled pork profiteroles.

In Eastern religions, SamSara means rebirth, a fitting name for the café, said Elliott, because he believes it is contributing to the renewal of the South Street Seaport.

“There’s the potential for this area to become like the Meatpacking District,” he predicted, explaining that like the meat warehouses that were replaced by chic clubs, the fish markets that once dominated the Seaport are becoming premier eateries.

SamSara Café

277 Water Street

212.444.9443

www.samsaracafe.com

Tags: Chef Joshua Elliott, Lower Manhattan, South Street Seaport, Stanton Social

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